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"Casual Gaming" Strikes Again?

Originally Posted by Gamespot

Earlier today, Activision Publishing announced a streamlining of its Vivendi Games operations, saying it would be bringing into the fold five of that company's franchises: Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Ice Age, Prototype, and one unannounced game.

An Activision representative later confirmed for GameSpot that those would be the only Vivendi Games franchises coming out of the publisher. That leaves a number of high-profile projects in limbo, including Double Fine Productions' Brutal Legend, as well as Wet, Ghostbusters, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, World at Conflict: Soviet Assault, 50 Cent Blood on the Sand, Zombie Wranglers, Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust, as well as several Xbox Live Arcade titles.

"The only franchises that Activision Publishing will release are based on Crash Bandicoot, Ice Age and Spyro, as well as Prototype and one other game that has not yet been announced," the representative said. "We are reviewing our options regarding those titles that we will not be publishing."
Activision Blizzard has other publishing arms like Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Value that were not covered by the press release and could be among the options being reviewed. As of press time, representatives from those companies did not return requests for comment.

A scheduled Comic Con International panel on the Ghostbusters game was abruptly cancelled last week, with no explanation given to attendees. However, the game was on the show floor in playable form.

You care about the Terminal Reality developed Ghostbusters and not games from good developers, like Brutal Legend, World in Conflict, and Riddick? Sigh. Double Fine and Massive Entertainment will probably be fine, since they're independent and can probably find other publishers to pick up their games, but Ghostbusters and Riddick are tied to major movie properties that other publishers probably won't be able to license.

Anyway, this is bad news. Obviously the business suits are more interested in the "safe" franchises of yesterday rather than creating the new franchises of tomorrow. Sad but understandable given the typical focus on short-term profit rather than long-term profitability.